Improvement in automatic telegraphy and in perforators therefor



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Automatic Telegraphy and Perforators Therefo'r. N0.151,209, Patented May 26,1874.

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Autamatic Telegraphy and Perfurators Therefmr. NOJSLZOQ, PatentedMayZfi I874.

THOMAS A. EDISON, OF NEWARK, NE\V J ERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPHY AND IN PERFORATORS THEREFOR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 151.32%9, datd May 26, 1374; application filed September 2, 1873.

Cnsn 83.

To all whom it may concern Be it knownthat I, THOMAS A. EDISON, of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Automatic Telegraphin g and the following is declared to be a correct description of the same.

In the Morse system of telegraphy the operator frequently receives the message by sound, and writes the same out as received. In the printing-telegraph system, the printed strip itself is usually delivered as received. In the ordinary automatic system, the l paper has to be punched or, composed; and, at the receiving-station, the message on the chemical paper has to be translated and written out by hand, or printed by a key printing-instrument. Each system has its defects or disadvantages. The Morse system is slow, and requires a large number of wires. The printing-telegraphs are expensive, liable to inaccuracies and injury, and limited in speed to the fingering of the keys. The automatic system is rapid 011 the line,'but the composing of the message and the writing of it out at the receiving-station are comparatively slow operations.

The object I have in view is to print the message chemically. Thereby the message, as received upon a strip of paper, is ready to be folded and sent to its destination; and the rapidity is equal to any automatic transmission. I accomplish this object by perforating the strip of .paper used for transmitting with groups of holes, representing by each group a letter or character, the perforations being arranged to produce, as nearly as possible, the block or Roman letters or characters.

The transmission of the message by the linewires may be in the usual manner, by a roller or stylus, and a line-wire to each row of per forations, so that, if there are five rows of perforations, there will be five stylus-points or rollers, each connected to a line-wire, and, at the receiving-instrument, there will be five pens or stylus-points near together, and the letter received will be in dots corresponding to the position of the perforations in the transmittin g-paper, and, by their aggregation in groups, the letters will be clearly delineated, and

formed almost as perfectly as printed characters, so that the strip of chemical paper can be delivered, and the rewriting or printing of the message dispensed with. The message, as received, being the counterpart of that transmitted, the perforated paper at the transmit ting-station becomes a perfect record of the message, and the line can be worked up to its utmost capacity, because the paper can be perforated for transmitting about as rapidly as an ordinary printing telegraph can be operated, and as many perforating operators and machines can be used as are necessary for the work that is to be done on the lines.

I have herein indicated the mode of using this improvement with five line-wires but I contemplate to use the transmitting-paper, perforated as herein described, with transmittin and receiving mechanism that will operate with only one linewire, and are to form the subject of a separate application.

In the drawing, Figure 1 represents a piece of paper with perforations, and adapted to use in transmitting. Fig. 2 shows the chemical paper with the same word printed thereupon by the dots running together, or being sufti ciently close to each other to show the respect ive letters. Fig. 3 is a plan of a portion of the perforatingmachine. Fig. 4 is an eleva tion endwise of the punches, and Fig. 5 is a partial section longitudinally.

I find that five lines of perforations are the most convenient for producing perforations in imitation of block letters or characters, and have shown and described such but I am not limited in that respect.

Reference is hereby made to Letters Patent No. 121,601, granted to me December 5,1871, for a machine for perforating paper for tcle graphic purposes, which, with the modifications herein set forth, is adapted to punching the characters in the strip of transmitting-pa per.

Instead of having two lines of punches, i 1 as in aforesaid patent, these punches i i are twenty-five in number, positioned in a square of five each way, and as close together as con venient. Each punch is connected with its slide-plate 7s, and these slide' plates l.- are side by side, and supported in the frame of the machine, so that they can be moved cndwise with facility, and actuate the punches to which they are connected, respectively. The punches slide in the plate 122; and n is the die-plate, as in said patent. I There might be a spring to each slide-plate k and punch 11; but I have shown a lever, is, passing through mortise-s in the plates 70, and provided with a spring to draw all the punches and slide-plates back to their normal position after theyhave been actuated.

If the punches are separate from the slideplates, each row maybe provided with a lever, Z, and spring 0, to return or draw back the punches; and said levers I act within notches in the punches, as shown.

The shoulders or projections 8 are provided upon the slide-plates 70, contiguous to the respective pressers e, and these projections S are only upon such of the slide-plates that require to be moved by the presser to which they are adjacent, to operate the punches iequired to perforate the letter corresponding to the one on the finger-key a that is connected to the particular presser c, as in aforesaid patent; and I remark that the slide-bars e and connectingcams f, or forks to move the pressers c by the finger-keys a, maybe similar to those shown in said patent, and the lever a, feeding clamp t, pawl a, rack bar a, and pawl 10 are similar to the parts shown, and they operate in the manner described in the aforesaid patent, and therefore do not require further description.

From the illustration given in Fig. 1, the general character of the groups of perforations will be apparent and, in the square of twen ty-five punches, the proper ones can easily be selected to perforate any given letter or char acter,suff1cientlylike block letters to be reliably read, at the receivin g-station, on the chemical paper.

I am aware that types have been used in telegraphing characters, and also that letters have been made by punching slots and circular holes; but this mode of perforating could not be accomplished by one group of punches to perforate any letter by selecting punches from that group. Furthermore, the slots under the paper are liable to tear.

I claim as my invention- 1. A strip of telegraphic transmittingpaper perforated with holes of uniform size, grouped together to represent ordinary letters or figures, substantially as set fort 2. The mechanism for making groups of perforationsin a strip of paper in imitation of letters or characters, the same consisting of punches massed together in a square, or

nearly so, and mechanism intervening between such punches and the finger-keys, for selecting from such mass of punches those that are required for perforating characters corresponding with the characters upon the respective finger-keys, substantially as set forth.

Signed by me this 25th day of August, A. D. 1873.

THOMAS A. EDISON.

\Vitnesses GEo. T. PINOKNEY, CHAS. I-I. Snrrn. 

